WOW! I mean, it sounds like we should hold off on getting excited and it's probably a long ways away from utility but the potential if it's legit is amazing.

It has been suggested for example that metallic hydrogen might be metastable; that is - once made under extreme conditions it would maintain its state even when brought back up to ambient pressures and temperatures.

And if, as some think, it is also a zero-resistance superconductor, that could lead to a revolution in the transmission and storage of electricity.

The US space agency is also fascinated by the material. Already super-cold liquid hydrogen makes for a very powerful rocket propellant, but the dense metallic form of hydrogen promises to deliver really colossal levels of thrust that would enable huge payloads to be lifted off Earth.

But all this is in the realms of speculation for now. First, it must be shown that the Harvard work can be reproduced. If that's possible - and some are saying that is a very big "if" - then more sizeable quantities of metallic hydrogen need to be created.

WOW! I mean, it sounds like we should hold off on getting excited and it's probably a long ways away from utility but the potential if it's legit is amazing.

It has been suggested for example that metallic hydrogen might be metastable; that is - once made under extreme conditions it would maintain its state even when brought back up to ambient pressures and temperatures.

And if, as some think, it is also a zero-resistance superconductor, that could lead to a revolution in the transmission and storage of electricity.

The US space agency is also fascinated by the material. Already super-cold liquid hydrogen makes for a very powerful rocket propellant, but the dense metallic form of hydrogen promises to deliver really colossal levels of thrust that would enable huge payloads to be lifted off Earth.

But all this is in the realms of speculation for now. First, it must be shown that the Harvard work can be reproduced. If that's possible - and some are saying that is a very big "if" - then more sizeable quantities of metallic hydrogen need to be created.

Great read. It's always a shame to hear about scientists acting like religious nuts. The pursuit should always be to improve our understanding. We should always be open to new ideas & discoveries. I hope we find that this thing actually does work.

Great read. It's always a shame to hear about scientists acting like religious nuts. The pursuit should always be to improve our understanding. We should always be open to new ideas & discoveries. I hope we find that this thing actually does work.

I agree. The pursuit for understanding is what matters.

So many people are close minded, or have an agenda, or are set in on their beliefs.

Great read. It's always a shame to hear about scientists acting like religious nuts. The pursuit should always be to improve our understanding. We should always be open to new ideas & discoveries. I hope we find that this thing actually does work.

I agree. The pursuit for understanding is what matters.

So many people are close minded, or have an agenda, or are set in on their beliefs.

It's funny too because I remember seeing that String Theory floated around but wasn't taken seriously for a long time. Reading a Short History of Nearly Everything, you get some glimpses into the in-fighting and struggles that scientists in all fields went through to make discoveries (not to mention the confusion and missteps along the way). It's fascinating but it also makes me feel like skepticism is very healthy but outright shutting down ideas without going through the full process of experimenting, repeating and reviewing is always gonna be a problem unfortunately.

Has NASA found evidence of life in space? Some of the world's leading voices on life beyond Earth will gather for a NASA press conference Wednesday where an important announcement on planets outside our solar system was expected to be made, NASA announced Monday. Exoplanets are widely believed to be the best hope of finding life elsewhere in the universe.

Has NASA found evidence of life in space? Some of the world's leading voices on life beyond Earth will gather for a NASA press conference Wednesday where an important announcement on planets outside our solar system was expected to be made, NASA announced Monday. Exoplanets are widely believed to be the best hope of finding life elsewhere in the universe.

Has NASA found evidence of life in space? Some of the world's leading voices on life beyond Earth will gather for a NASA press conference Wednesday where an important announcement on planets outside our solar system was expected to be made, NASA announced Monday. Exoplanets are widely believed to be the best hope of finding life elsewhere in the universe.

If it's that big an announcement, it'll have more hype going in IMO. They do these "big announcement coming" things whenever funding starts to get mentioned (I don't mind that though because NASA needs MORE funding if anything) so with the new administration I could see them picking out something incremental and making an announcement for it. But of course it'd be great if this was a discovery of some serious signs of life out there...it's only a matter of time at this point.

Has NASA found evidence of life in space? Some of the world's leading voices on life beyond Earth will gather for a NASA press conference Wednesday where an important announcement on planets outside our solar system was expected to be made, NASA announced Monday. Exoplanets are widely believed to be the best hope of finding life elsewhere in the universe.

If it's that big an announcement, it'll have more hype going in IMO. They do these "big announcement coming" things whenever funding starts to get mentioned (I don't mind that though because NASA needs MORE funding if anything) so with the new administration I could see them picking out something incremental and making an announcement for it. But of course it'd be great if this was a discovery of some serious signs of life out there...it's only a matter of time at this point.

The lack of funding for NASA is sickening.

They are planning to send a lander to Europa to take a look for life. I'm truly excited about that.

PeoplesChamp wrote:Great read. It's always a shame to hear about scientists acting like religious nuts. The pursuit should always be to improve our understanding. We should always be open to new ideas & discoveries. I hope we find that this thing actually does work.

I agree. The pursuit for understanding is what matters.

So many people are close minded, or have an agenda, or are set in on their beliefs.

It's funny too because I remember seeing that String Theory floated around but wasn't taken seriously for a long time. Reading a Short History of Nearly Everything, you get some glimpses into the in-fighting and struggles that scientists in all fields went through to make discoveries (not to mention the confusion and missteps along the way). It's fascinating but it also makes me feel like skepticism is very healthy but outright shutting down ideas without going through the full process of experimenting, repeating and reviewing is always gonna be a problem unfortunately.

As a scientist I find these comments incredibly frustrating. Good scientists are skeptical and that's exactly what the scientific community is being. Both this EM drive scientist and string theorists are given ample opportunity to make their claims, and these things are discussed in serious forums. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, that's how it works. We are not religious nuts, we are simply rigorous.

As for string theory, everyone agrees it's beautiful mathematics and it's taught in every serious graduate program. The problem is and has always been that it lacks any experimental observable to validate it.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with science having high standards of scrutiny for new ideas. In the end, if an idea has merit it will eventually be taken seriously. It's not just some random dude in an office checking off boxes on what is realistic and what's not. The evidence will speak for itself. One should always be skeptical at first when presented with any new idea. It's literally the exact opposite of religion. Don't compare hardworking scientists to religious nuts that blindly believe their one way is absolute truth. Science is constantly updating and changing as new info comes out.

Barcs wrote:There is absolutely nothing wrong with science having high standards of scrutiny for new ideas. In the end, if an idea has merit it will eventually be taken seriously. It's not just some random dude in an office checking off boxes on what is realistic and what's not. The evidence will speak for itself. One should always be skeptical at first when presented with any new idea. It's literally the exact opposite of religion. Don't compare hardworking scientists to religious nuts that blindly believe their one way is absolute truth. Science is constantly updating and changing as new info comes out.

To be fair, some scientific people are that way too.

I watched that movie, Religulous that Bill Maher put together. I was expecting the result you described, but what I saw was that the Catholic priests in Rome were the most open to new ideas and the scientists were the least.

That's not to endorse one side of the other btw, it's just that people in general are more complex than their religious (or non) beliefs.